Ohio Diebold lobbyist biz partners w. organized crime convicts

[rightfoot]

http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/5727.html
(story gives permission to reprint w. link)(trying out HTML lookup skills -- kewl)

Money Trail Series #2: The Ohio Players
By Bev Harris and Kathleen Wynne

For a glimpse into local mechanics for money laundering and bribes, a good place to start is Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Diebold lobbyist Pat Gallina’s Republican Party friend, Robert E. Hughes was written up in the New York Times back in 1978, alleging a clumsy version of the cash transfers that have since evolved into an art form.

Who is Diebold’s Ohio lobbyist, Pasquale A. Gallina? (a.k.a. Patrick A. Gallina, Pat Gallina)

(Recap from Part I) ACG Group LLC was formed by Democrat Juan Andrade Jr., Democrat Anthony Celebrezze, and Republican Pat Gallina for the purpose of selling Diebold voting systems in Ohio and Illinois. (1) Gallina and Celebrezze were involved in the Ohio side of procurement, but Celebrezze died shortly after forming the company, leaving Gallina to handle Ohio. (2)

Pat Gallina has been operating behind the scenes in Ohio to promote the leading voting system vendor.

Gallina was the personnel director for the Ohio Lottery Commission during 1977 and 1978, when he resigned after being named in a lawsuit that prompted federal, state and local officials to investigate alleged contract kickback schemes at the commission. Gallina was granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony before a Cuyahoga County grand jury investigating Republican Chairman Robert E. Hughes over a lottery procurement issue. (3)

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Gallina and Juan Andrade:

While Gallina was at the Ohio Lottery, Juan Andrade Jr. was also in Columbus, running the Ohio League of Hispanic Affairs. (4) Andrade is Gallina’s current partner in ACG Group. As you will see, Gallina seems to be a curious choice in business partners for someone of Andrade's impeccable reputation.

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Gallina and Mark Michalko, CEO of Los Angeles voting system parent company:

In 1977 and 1978, Gallina met another player, Mark Michalko, who now heads the parent company for InkaVote, the voting system used in Los Angeles. (5 ) Gallina hired Michalko as legal counsel for the Ohio Lottery in 1977. (6) Michalko became the first California Lottery Director at the age of 30, but stepped down suddenly two years later after investigators began digging into his vague contracts and sloppy accounting (yes, and that little matter of what happened to the millions from unclaimed tickets...).

California Lottery Director Michalko was chided by the Little Hoover Commission for his inadequate contract management. (7) But GTECH lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson, who was indicted on 10 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering, seemed to feel that Michalko was someone GTECH could count on. Jackson was secretly tape-recorded wistfully discussing Michalko: “He was our guy,” said Jackson “We had the first guy.” (8)

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Gallina’s Ohio connections:

For an excellent tutorial on the unsavory process of procuring systems in response to orchestrated legislation, you can’t do better than lottery systems. Take a close look at how they were legislated into being, state by state. It was a business plan. (9) Then look at how people like the Ohio Lottery Players cozied up to bribe-o-matic GTECH, through wheel-greaser Battelle, which anointed GTECH over and over (state lottery directors then explained to regulators that they bought GTECH due to Battelle’s “independent” recommendations.) (10,11,12,13,14,15)

Battelle later got the bright idea to do this for voting systems, but except for their brief and failed foray into exit polling with Voter News Service in 2002, we have not yet identified their fingerprints on elections. (16)

For a glimpse into local mechanics for money laundering and bribes, a good place to start is Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Gallina’s Republican Party friend, Robert E. Hughes was written up in the New York Times back in 1978 alleging a clumsy version of the cash transfers that have since evolved into an art form.

Anatomy of a bribe

Apparently an investigation over Ohio lottery contracts erupted after MCA Games Inc won a $2.2 million contract. This was investigated for its connection with a curious bank deposit by Hughes associate Terrence McCarthy. On the same day MCA was awarded the contract, McCarthy deposited $3,000 from MCA into a Cleveland bank account, the downpayment on a $30,000 fee from MCA. Among those withdrawing funds from that bank account were Hughes's executive assistant, Daniel J Lyon, Hughes's brother Donald, and a firm called Robert E Hughes Consultant Inc. The bank account was in the name of “DTD Co.” The DTD Co. bank account served as a depository for various partners, all of whom had direct ties to the Republican headquarters and GOP chairman Hughes. (17)

So here’s how it goes: Put somewhat legit “consulting” money into joint account and let your friends pull it out the other side. This triple-initialed joint checking account, acting as a conduit, was crude compared to some of the newer techniques – the “Dutch Sandwich,” for example, and the “Shipper’s Method” – but we’ll get to those in another installment of the Money Trail series.

Back to Gallina. During Hughes’ tenure as a Cuyahoga County Republican powerbroker, he helped several GOP candidates into political positions, including Mayor Ralph Perk, whose campaign manager was Pat Gallina. (18) While Hughes was commissioner of the Cuyahoga County School Board, one of Pat Gallina’s business partners, Joseph LoConti, helped himself to lucrative contracts providing school lunches (19) and captured profitable contracts to insure and bond county construction projects.(20)

LoConti and another troublesome character, Andy Shission were partners with Gallina in a venture called AllTech Inc. (21) Shission was accused of killing a member of a rival motorcycle gang over stealing his jacket. According to newspaper reports of the time, Shission was the national treasurer for the Hell’s Angels. He was indicted for two murders, but acquitted on both, and was instead convicted on tax charges.

LoConti, a part-owner of Gandalf’s Inn in South Euclid, hired Shission as a manager. Later, a Cuyahoga County judge, James McGettrick, was convicted of taking bribes for fixing a triple-murder Hell’s Angel case, and the bribes were laundered through Gandalf’s Inn. Charges against Shission for this bribery scheme were dismissed. (22) When Shissione was arrested, however, paperwork was found on him detailing a $2,000 wire transfer to Ohio Governor George Voinovich appointee Michael A. Fox.

Fox insisted that he thought it was Gallina who wired him the money. It was actually LoConti. No matter, says Fox, it was consulting money for work he did for a third party. The third party, he says, was Gallina. Fox was having his own problems, trying to explain to investigators why he'd been receiving payments from a concrete company awarded $8.5 million in state contracts. He explained that the cement firm needed a political consultant.(23)

Ohio's troubles with organized crime, Hell’s Angel murders, and politician indictments weren’t as bad as they could have been. Indictments more often end up dismissed for politicians, businessmen and lobbyists.

LoConti has been particularly lucky with witnesses changing their minds about testifying. Shission's lawyer, quoted in court documents, takes umbrage at the idea that juries should be allowed to be anonymous in certain Ohio cases -- and he denies allegations about defendants "staring intently at jurists" and cars driving ominously up and down streets where jury members live. (24) We found only one witness who turned up dead at a fortuitous moment. Just days after John D. Sorine's decision to turn state's evidence on a bid-rigging probe, he was found dead in a motel room. The beneficiary listed on Sorine's $500,000 life insurance policy was one of LoConti's companies. However, LoConti never got the money because the insurer refused to pay.(25)

Ohio isn’t alone in its frequent reprieves for indicted officials; former Los Angeles County Elections registrar Ray Ortiz beat a number of raps, and Lance Gough, while shilling for voting machines through ES&S predecessor Business Records Corp, was acquitted of charges including theft and allegations that he participated in payment of inappropriate expenses for two San Diego County election officials. (26)

The players have become more respectable, or at least smoother, in their recent activities. And, like Tinker-toys, the politicians, vendors, businessmen and lobbyists all seem to be interchangeable, if they survive.

Word to voting integrity activists: If you aren't a Tinker-toy, you aren't in the club; this should help to explain some of the blank looks you receive as you try, with sincerity and reason, to improve the system.

Voting machine salesman Lance Gough is now Executive Director of the Chicago Elections Board. Judge McGettrick died shortly after arriving in prison. LoConti is now running an insurance conglomerate. Robert E. Hughes left the Cuyahoga County political scene in 1991, when he was found asphyxiated in his garage from carbon monoxide poisoning, ruled an accident -- (albeit a strange one, since he was in the midst of a construction-related dispute and was reportedly found in pajamas covered by a business suit).(27) Michael A. Fox is now a Butler County Commissioner.(28) Gallina is now a lobbyist for NEC and Diebold in Ohio, in addition to handling the paperwork for the Diebold money machine, ACG Group LLC.

What can we do about this? First, if you want to change the system, start by gaining a basic understanding of what "the system" actually is. That is why we're doing this unpleasant step. Learning how procurement works is the first step towards lasting reform.(29)

Next in the Money Trail series: Revolvers and Hired Guns -- Latest List of Interchangeable Election People

Footnotes & sources:
(1) Videotaped interviews, Apr. 28 2005, by Black Box Voting: 2-min clips
http://www.bbvdocs.org/videos/cook1.mpg
http://www.bbvdocs.org/videos/cook2.mpg
http://www.bbvdocs.org/videos/cook3.mpg

(2) News article about Celebrezze death: Jul. 5 2003 - The Associated Press: "Obituaries in the News"
(3) Mar. 24, 1991 – The Plain Dealer: “Cabinet pick's ties to Hell's Angel probed in '86”
(4) Ohio League of Hispanic Affairs corporate documents: http://www.bbvdocs.org/IL-Cook/andrade-ohiocorps.pdf
(5 ) 2004 Annual Report for International Lottery and Totalizator Systems Inc.
(6) OMay 8 2005 -- Los Angeles Times: "Ohio Official Favored for State Lottery Director"
(7) A Review of the Organization, Operation and Performance of the California State Lottery, Little Hoover Commission
(8) Oct 22, 1993 – Los Angeles Times: Secret Recording Brags of GTECH Influence with Lottery Directors
(9) Oct. 10 2004 -- The News & Observer: "Tax increases, cuts don't fall evenly on all"
(10) May 11, 1987 – PR Newswire: “Lottery Director Recommends
(11) Government Computer News Vol. 7, No. 19 “Judge OKs Mich. Lottery System Contract”
(12) Nov. 29 1988 – Chicago Sun-Times: “$100 million lottery deal goes to G-Tech”
(13) Aug. 24 1990 – Capitol News Bureau: “Mass. success suggests lottery should pay off in La.” LOUISIANA LOTTERY SERIES
(14) Nov. 18, 1990 – The Washington Post: “Md. Lottery Contract A Ticket to Intrigue”
(15) Sept 8 2003 -- St. Petersburg Times: “GTECH Has Winning Lottery Ticket, Checkered Past”
(16) Feb. 6, 2001 – The Columbus Dispatch: “Battelle Stumps for Role in Voting Process”
(17) Dec. 10, 1978 – New York Times: “Fed, state and county officials are investigating web of Ohio lottery”
(18) Oct. 1, 1989 – The Plain Dealer: “Campaign aides play key roles They help determine the tone of candidates' messages”
(19) Jun 13, 1988 – Chicago Tribune: “Schools play favorites with food contracts”
(20) Aug. 10, 1991 – The Plain Dealer: “Soil problems delay dock extension”
(21) Mar. 1991 – The Plain Dealer: “Cabinet pick's ties to Hell's Angel probed in '86”
(22) Apr. 14, 1986 – Crains Cleveland Business: “Merchants' Underwriter Bonds His Own Firm”
(23) Mar. 24, 1991 – The Plain Dealer: “Cabinet pick's ties to Hell's Angel probed in '86”
(24) United States of America v. Roger Stanley, Stanley Stewart and Robert Doyle, 2002 Grand Jury charges
(25) Dec. 27, 1992 -- The Plain Dealer: "National contractor's death remains a puzzle"
(26) Jul. 10, 1987 – Los Angeles Times: “Ex-registrar acquitted on theft charges”
(27) Thanks to Bob Fitrakis, who provided tips for what to look for on Robert Hughes's death, along with general perspectives about several characters in Ohio corruption scandals who are not mentioned here.
(28) Butler County Web site - www.bceo.org/bcdata.html
(29) Nov. 9, 1999 -- The Columbus Dispatch: "State sees $60,000 proteest price tag"

Discuss this story here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/72/72.html

Black Box Voting is calling for a spending moratorium on new voting systems and components until multiple problems with election system design and integrity are addressed.

[rigel99]

1. Welcome to DU Rightfoot

this is an awesome post..

can you help me find a similar trail with respect to Diebold in Georgia..

I need to trace down the lobbyists and the payouts (who gets paid what). I know our former SOS is a big bad Georgia / Nationwide Diebold lobbyist. (forgot his name just now) but want specifically to know who gets paid in Southeast to lobby for diebold...

thanks!

[Chicago1]

2. This was excellent

Good Job!!!

This was very informative.

Waiting for the IMPEACHMENT WHILE THE SCANDALS KEEP UNFOLDING
America's Work Stories
http://usaworkstories.blogspot.com
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[kster]

3. kick.nt